BILL NUMBER: AJR 39	CHAPTERED  05/25/00

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER   67
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   MAY 25, 2000
	ADOPTED IN SENATE   MAY 24, 2000
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY   APRIL 10, 2000

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Washington

                        JANUARY 3, 2000

   Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39--Relative to homelessness.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 39, Washington.    Homelessness.
   This measure would support a comprehensive national plan to end
homelessness and urge the President of the United States, Congress,
and other relevant federal agencies to develop and implement a
comprehensive plan to end homelessness.  This measure would also
request the President of the United States to convene a National
Commission on Homelessness to develop a comprehensive strategic plan
for addressing homelessness nationwide.




   WHEREAS, Homelessness has been steadily increasing for several
years and constitutes, especially for the mentally ill, an archaic
form of human misery that can no longer be tolerated in this, the
world's greatest and most responsive democracy; and
   WHEREAS, Homelessness creates a sizable drain on social and
economic resources and is a frustration to legitimate commerce and an
obstacle to community development; and
   WHEREAS, Prevention of future homelessness will pay great
dividends to American society that will more than justify the effort
and costs of instituting a national plan for the homeless; and
   WHEREAS, Health and social services, as well as welfare
institutions, are now faced with the urgent necessity of creating new
avenues of cooperation, coordination, and mutual support, and there
is a nationwide need for new concentrations of community outreach,
and active, aggressive provision of services, for the treatment and
prevention of homelessness and of mental illness among the homeless;
and
   WHEREAS, A number of recent studies, all reliable, broadly-based,
and conducted independently of one another, reveal that American
homeless persons number over two and one-half million at any given
time, and fall into one or more of the following general categories:

   (a) Women and their children;
   (b) The mentally ill;
   (c) Military veterans;
   (d) Drug and/or alcohol addicts;
   (e) Parolees or probationers;
   (f) HIV/Aids victims;
   (g) Functionally illiterate persons or others with incomplete
educations;
   (h) Newly-evicted working poor; and
   (i) Welfare recipients for whom aid has been reduced or curtailed;
and
   WHEREAS, The causes of homelessness are numerous and complex and
therefore the cure cannot be simplistic and cannot exclusively
address any single issue or causative factor; and
   WHEREAS, Due to a lack of resources, many local governments,
particularly cities and counties throughout the State of California
and nationwide, have increasingly relied upon law enforcement or the
enactment or enforcement of municipal codes and ordinances to address
the behavioral aspects of homelessness.  This approach has resulted
in public policy that focuses on a person's status as homeless,
instead of focusing on the obstacles that need to be overcome to
solve the problem of homelessness; and
   WHEREAS, It is absolutely necessary that any meaningful,
comprehensive plan for the eradication or significant reduction of
homelessness be instituted at the federal level because successful
local model projects will not achieve permanence and uniform
consistency unless they are integrated into a national strategy; and
   WHEREAS, The number of homeless men, women, and children
throughout the United States is increasing at an alarming rate; now,
therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and Senate of the State of California,
jointly, That the Legislature calls for, endorses, and supports a
comprehensive national plan to end homelessness, and urges the
President of the United States, Congress, and other relevant federal
agencies to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to end
homelessness; and be it further
   Resolved, That the President of the United States is requested to
convene a National Commission on Homelessness, nonpartisan and
broadly representative in composition, with the specific mission of
developing a comprehensive strategic plan for addressing
homelessness, its causes, and its prevention nationwide; and be it
further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to each
Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the
United States.
